αὖος

Forms

αὖος (aûos) m (feminine αὔη, neuter αὖον); first/second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *ahúhos,^[1] from Proto-Indo-European *h₂seu̯s- (“to be dry”).^[2][1][3] Frisk and Chantraine start from a form with an aspirate in both syllables, which lost one by dissimilation and gave both αὖος and Attic ⟨αὗος⟩.^[4][5] Lubotsky, followed by Beekes, reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *h₂sus- and sees the word as an old perfect participle of a root meaning “to be dry”, seen in ἄζω (ázō, “to dry up”) and Latin āreō (“to be dry”); this avoids an older reconstruction *saus- with the vowel *a.^[3]

Cognate with Lithuanian saũsas, Old Church Slavonic сухъ (suxŭ) and Old English sēar, all meaning “dry”; Sanskrit शोष (śoṣa) “drying” has a different vowel.^[3][4][5] Apollonius Dyscolus explained it as “not rained on”, from the negative prefix and ὕω (húō, “to rain”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Homer uses it of dry wood, of shields of dried oxhide, and of armour that rings with a dry, harsh sound when struck.^[7][8][9]

Semantic evolution

The basic sense was dry after being wet: of seasoned timber and fuel, of ground and trees in Homer and Hesiod, of dried hides, fish and seeds in Herodotus and Theocritus.^[8][7] It also described things withered or dried up, such as a garland in Aristophanes, a stale crust of bread, and the dry part of a nail, which Hesiod says should not be cut from the green.^[7][8] Heraclitus taught that the dry soul is the wisest and best.^[10]

People could be dry too: Aristophanes uses it of a withered old man, Menander of someone shrivelled with fear, and Lucian and Alciphron of someone drained dry, without money.^[8][11] Plutarch applied it to a dry style of speaking.^[8]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it of dry wood, oxhide shields and the dry sound of armour.^[7][9]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod uses it of dry ground and of the dead part of a nail.^[7][8]
• 6th–5th century BC – Heraclitus speaks of the dry soul as the wisest.^[10]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it of dried hippopotamus hide.^[7][10]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses it of a withered garland.^[7][8][10]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Menander uses it of a person numb with fear.^[8][10]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch uses it of a dry style.^[8][10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Dry, after being wet; of wood, seasoned.^[7][8]
2. Dried up, withered, lacking moisture; of bread, stale.^[7][8]
3. Dried for use or keeping, as hides, fish or seeds.^[8][7]
4. Of sound, dry and harsh: αὖον ἀϋτεῖν, to ring with a rasping sound.^[7]
5. Of people, shrivelled, numb with fear; drained dry, penniless; of a style, dry.^[8][11]

Related words

• αὕω (haúō)
• αὐστηρός (austērós)
• αὐχμός (aukhmós)
• αὐαίνω (auaínō)

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Wodtko, Dagmar S.; Irslinger, Britta; Schneider, Carolin (2008), Nomina im indogermanischen Lexikon, Heidelberg: Winter
3. ^ a b c Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
5. ^ a b Chantraine, Pierre (2009), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots, new ed. with a supplement (Chroniques d'étymologie grecque 1–10), Paris: Klincksieck
6. ^ Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
9. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
10. ^ a b c d e f Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
11. ^ a b Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.